1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a control apparatus and a control method for a robot arm, used for generating operations of a robot as well as for teaching the operations to the robot, a robot provided with the control apparatus for a robot arm, a program of a robot arm and an integrated electronic circuit for controlling a robot arm.
2. Background Art
In recent years, house-service robots, such as nursing robots or housekeeping support robots, have been vigorously developed. Different from an industrial robot, the house-service robot is manipulated by amateurs in home; therefore, it is necessary to easily teach operations to the robot. Moreover, since there are various operation environments in which the robot carries out a job depending on homes, it is necessary for the robot to flexibly adjust to the corresponding home environment.
For example, a teaching method for the robot device has been proposed in which a force sensor is attached to a wrist or the like of a robot, and a teaching person directly grabs a handle attached to a tip of the force sensor, and directs the robot to teaching points so that teaching processes for positions of the robot are carried out (see Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).    Patent Document 1: JP-A No. 59-157715    Patent Document 2: JP-A No. 7-84632
In Patent Document 1, however, since all teaching points need to be taught by a teaching person, a teaching process takes long time, resulting in time-consuming troublesome tasks. Moreover, in the industrial field, upon revising one portion of taught movements, the revision needs to be made through a programming process by using a remote control apparatus called a teaching pendant, or all the operations need to be taught all over again from the beginning, failing to provide an efficient process.
In particular, in the case of a house-service robot, the teaching time needs to be made as short as possible. Moreover, a combined use of the programming process by the remote control apparatus such as the teaching pendant causes an increase in operation steps, and learning of programming languages is required, with the result that this method becomes very difficult for amateurs at home.
Moreover, as described in Patent Document 2, in the industrial robot, a teaching job for teaching operations to the robot and a main job actually carried out by the robot are clearly divided and carried out respectively. However, upon executing the taught job at home, since the taught environment is frequently varied into a different environment, even when the taught operation, as it is, is carried out, the robot tends to stop, or tends to carry out an erroneous job, due to a varied environment. It is difficult to estimate all the varied environments in advance and to carry out the corresponding teaching processes. These issues are not limited to the house-service robot, and tend to occur also in the industrial robot, under an environment that is frequently varied into a different environment.
The present invention has been devised in view of these issues, and an objective thereof is to provide a control apparatus and a control method for a robot arm, which allows the robot arm to adopt to an environment in which the robot arm is operated, and by which a robot controlling process that allows an operator to easily carry out teaching processes on the robot arm in a short period of time, and also to prepare a robot, a control program for a robot arm and an integrated electronic circuit for controlling a robot arm.